Sunday, 12 February 2012

With the Midnight Channel quiet once again, Persona 4's eighteenth episode gives us an opportunity to explore another side-story and some of the characters within it.

The episode begins in distressing fashion as we witness a hit-and-run accident - an event which seems to have special significance for detective Dojima as he sets about investigating the incident with even more vigour than is usual for him. This all ties into daughter Nanako's current concerns, as she wonders about her mother, whose picture is conspicuously absent from her home while her death has never been fully explained to Nanako, and her dad's seeming lack of interest in her.

It's left to Narukami to act as an intermediary here, as Dojima becomes more and more focuses upon his work, even leaving an ill Nanako to Yuu so that he can continue his investigations, while Nanako herself begins to wonder whether Dojima is even her real father. Things finally come to a head as Narukami's exhausted uncle admits that he's almost certain not to attend his daughter's class observation day, which leads to Nanako fleeing the house in tears - a moment which, perhaps, finally leads Dojima to realise where he's been going wrong and to open up a new chapter in the life of his family.

Despite having little if anything to do with the show's main story, this turned out to be another solid and well-paced instalment which worked well as a stand-alone episode in its own right all the way through to its genuinely emotional finale as it filled in another chunk of the back story of some of its characters. Persona 4 certainly seems to have the measure of its characters and how to deliver by utilising them properly these days, which bodes well as we move deeper and deeper into the series, even if we have the predictable school festival episode coming up next.